Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to speak at Web 2.0 and met a fair amount of people. Thanks Dave for hooking it up. The audience was mostly asleep but it was still great speaking and I hope people got some value out of our panel. But the point of this article is about some of the people at Web 2.0.

Ladies? Do you know about pre-mature ejaculation? It sucks, no pun intended.

How does this relate to business? People do this ALL the time with their business cards.

23 responses to “Business Card Pre-Mature Ejaculation”

I always see people come back from conferences with dozens of cards. Then they sit down and type in all the information. I think to myself “are you really going to use/help/keep in touch with that contact?”

As humans we all do it. Facebook and MySpace, it’s the same thing. Click “friend me” for any reason I feel like.

1. I love the picture for this post. Oh the memories of high school homecoming…

2. As a rule, I never give/ask for a business card unless they specifically ask for mine, or we have an engaging conversation about something that requires following up. Its the same thing as people who collect contacts on LinkedIn. I almost feel like its a hobby for some people where they go home and have this massive books of peoples biz cards in plastic holders.

I realized awhile ago a business card means nothing without the relationship. Get to know the person before you have a reason to follow up. Think about if I gave you Bill Gates email address, does it matter if you didn’t really connect with him in person?

How about a business card with the following information at the back: [have a set of business cards that will be given out to locals, for example, a realtor]

1) Phone number of local cab company
2) Phone number of local electrician
3) Phone number of local plumber
4) How about if the entire back of the card is a subway coupon 🙂
5) Phone number of local mechanic

I wonder if someone can come up with mass produced electronic business cards. If its mass produced, should cost less than $1 (think of cheap calculators)

Or if everyone had an electronic business card that capable of accepting electronic transfer from another business card instantly.

Hahahah. I love you. This is something that has always bothered me. I often just wait a day before going through all the cards I receive. If I can remember the conversation I had with the person, I write them an email. If not, it goes into recycling.

I didn’t know you were speaking there. I would have liked to see you. Are you going to podcasthotel?

I totally agree–in theory. The thing about conferences is that there were probably 20 people waiting to speak to Noah. They might only have 1 or 2 minutes to talk to him, so sometimes people do take a short-hand approach of giving the card first, so the YOU can follow-up if you want to and if you see a connection. I absolutely agree, I’d rather get to know the person, see if there is a connection organically and THEN get the card. However, there have been MANY times in my life when I was having an excellent conversation and for some reason, we are interrupted and don’t get a chance to exchange cards, then the opportunity is lost. So, I’m playing the devil’s advocate here and just saying that sometimes people want to be sure to at least exchange cards because after all that is why most people go to conferences, to meet new people and hopefully continue to build the relationship.

I’d have to disagree here – I ask and give my business card all the time here in the Philippines. You never know what opportunity may present itself in the future, whether its 5 days or 5 months from now, and I’ll gladly take someone’s contact information on the first date as you never know, we may get married in the future!

1. Don’t quite see how premature ejaculation and sucking are closely related enough to be construed as a pun

2. Having a pocketful of meaningless, one-sentence convo business cards isn’t all bad. You can hand those out to the next person who prematurely asks for an exchange

3. Personally, I completely forget that I even have cards. But I’m comfortable throwing them around because I know if anyone calls up asking for Jolina, they don’t know me. If they ask for Joe, I know I’ve at least intoduced myself to them.

I recently listened to a woman speak who said, don’t give someone your business card unless they ask for it. It’s rude to do so otherwise. I really think people offer their cards because they want yours and expect you to give it to them. How rude!

What really annoys me is when I get back to the office after a conference and start receiving ‘spam’ from people who I gave a business card to, against my will. I didn’t ask to be added to their mailing list, but all of a sudden I start getting emails and phone calls from them (Noah–quit calling and emailing me already!).

I think there should be a 2 minute rule before exchanging cards. Make a connection with the person first and then consider if you think it would be worth it to contact them in the future. My tactic…have 2 sets of cards made–one with the correct info and one with the bad info. Then you don’t feel bad about giving out your card, when asked, of course, but don’t have to worry about getting ‘spamed’ later. 🙂